In the notice released by CBIC, they extended the due dates for Annual Returns GSTR-9 and GSTR-9C to December 31st 2019 for the fiscal year 2017-18. Similarly, for the fiscal year 2018-19, deadline extended to March 31st 2020. Further, simplification of the above said forms are by marking several fields as optional.
GSTR-9 and GSTR-9c
The yearly annual returns filed by taxpayers is the GSTR-9 form. While GSTR-9C is specifically filled by taxpayers with annual turnover over 2 crores. As per the earlier notification, the due date for filing the respective forms was November 30th 2019 for the year 2017-18 and December 31st 2019 for the year 2018-19. However, in the recent turn of events to ease the process for taxpayers the due dates extended for filing GSTR-9 and GSTR-9c returns.
The Simplification and Extension of the GSTR-9 and GSTR-9C
The amendments brought after following meeting between CBIC, Finance Minister, chartered accountants, traders and stakeholders. The meeting on 9th of November 2019 addressed the areas of difficulties faced by the Taxpayers.
Attempting to explain the hardships the stakeholders requested to ease the forms for specific returns. On noticing, Nirmala Sitharaman guaranteed simplification of GST filing in future. Additionally, she advised the entire country to hold a similar exercise to gain a better understanding of the problems. The GST returns trials will be available on the portal soon.
The Amendments
CBIC believes that this action would facilitate all the GST taxpayers to file their annual returns with ease. Further, it emphasized that the GSTN and CBIC shall monitor each other’s stipulations and discuss on the same regularly after December 7. Based on the meeting with the Finance Minister, changes were made along with the terms of entries, credit and debit system alongside uncertain fields were clarified. As of now, the aligned forms are readily available on the portal. Following the trail, a nationwide consultation will be held on December 7 to collect feedback on the new changes.